Tracking A Disease

摘要

Cholera breaks out in a remote part of a developing country and officials at the district capital are swamped by requests for help. Healthcare workers are scattered across the sparsely populated countryside and the situation is changing hour by hour. How can health services keep track of the situation and decide where to send aid first? From this June a marriage of cellphone and internet technology may help them cope. Cellphones are now widespread in many poor nations, and rather than health workers communicating individually, the new service, called GeoChat, will create an online map of their locations and any information they have to offer. Once up and running, it will coordinate relief efforts and ensure people are aware of who is doing what, and where.